When a tooth must be extracted because of external injury or dental caries, a dental prosthesis is used to appropriately support the inter-dental papilla or gingiva. The dental prosthesis is referred to as an artificial tooth or a false tooth. Further, the dental prosthesis means an artificial substitute for a missing natural tooth or tissue associated therewith.
The dental prosthesis has been essentially used to prevent a tooth adjacent to an extracted tooth from moving to an abnormal location during dental treatment. Particularly, in the case of a patient of a low age group or a patient who suffers from a serious periodontal disease, the dental prosthesis is utilized for maintaining occlusion properly stable.
However, when the dental prosthesis is manufactured, a high degree of accuracy is required. The dental prosthesis must be well made so as to healthily maintain the gingiva at its original position during prosthetic treatment. In order to enhance the accuracy of a final prosthesis, the gingiva must be kept healthy during the prosthetic treatment.
There are two methods which are used to manufacture the conventional dental prosthesis. That is, the dental prosthesis may be manufactured in a dental laboratory upon the order of a dentist, or may be manufactured in the care unit of a dental clinic.
In the first of the two cited manufacturing methods, the dental clinic transmits an impression to the dental laboratory. In the dental laboratory, plaster is poured into the impression, thus producing a plaster model. Next, the gingiva portion of a missing tooth is removed from the plaster model using a rotary tool. Thereafter, wax is applied to the undercut portion of the plaster model, thus correcting an abutment. The missing tooth is restored using self curing resin. Once the resin is hardened, the plaster model is discarded and the external appearance of a tooth is formed. As such, after the prosthesis has been implanted using an elastic or non-elastic material, the convalescence of a patient has been observed for several days or months. Thereafter, a semi-permanent prosthesis using ceramic or alloy is replaced.
According to the second example, after a tooth structure which had suffered the external injury or dental caries is eliminated in the clinic, the operation of spacing the peripheral rim of the eliminated tooth from the gingiva is conducted, and a dental stem directly puts the self curing resin in the mouth by hand. Next, after the resin has hardened, it is pulled out from the mouth and the external appearance of the tooth is formed using the rotary tool, so that a dental prosthesis is finished. However, when the dental prosthesis requires casting or plastic work, so that it is impossible to manufacture the dental prosthesis in the clinic, the manufacture of the dental prosthesis is entrusted to the dental laboratory.
However, the methods of manufacturing a dental prosthesis using the above-mentioned processes are problematic in that manufacturing steps are complicated, dust may be generated while the external shape is being formed, thus leading to the contamination of the clinic, and those skilled in the art are required, and manufacturing period and cost are increased.